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July 16, 2010
Jordanians mull a deep taboo
Retired vets call for Palestinians to be stripped of their citizenship.
ABDULLAH OMAR THE MEDIA LINE
A recent statement made by a group of retired Jordanian army generals, which calls for Palestinian refugees to be stripped of their Jordanian passports, has sent shockwaves across the kingdom.
The unprecedented statement was provoked by the fear of the so-called “Jordan option” to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict by establishing a Palestinian state in Jordan.
The group touched on sensitive issues that have been, until lately, considered taboo in the country’s political landscape, namely Palestinian-Jordanian relations and the future of Palestinians in the kingdom.
The statement said efforts by Israel and its supporters to settle Palestinians in the kingdom are succeeding, pointing to the fact that the kingdom is home to 4.5 million Palestinians, some holding Jordanian citizenship and some not.
“The worst part of the conspiracy is that it has supporters in the kingdom who call for settlement of Palestinians and granting them equal political rights under support from Israel and the United States,” said the statement, calling for drastic measures to control what’s seen as the swelling effect of these lobby groups.
There is no reliable information on the exact number of Palestinians in Jordan. Authorities claim they constitute half of the population, although independent figures have given 65 percent of the kingdom’s six million population as a number. The Palestinian population is mostly concentrated in major cities, including Amman, Irbid and Zarqa, as well as in refugee camps around these cities.
But they are far from being fairly represented in Jordan’s parliament. With seats being elected on the basis of geographical region rather than the size of the overall vote, power has been granted disproportionately to “East Bankers” from Jordan’s desert areas in the north and south.
The previous parliament was dominated by approximately 80 percent East Bank Jordanians, before it was unceremoniously dissolved by the king following a spat with the media and the opposition over corruption and inept MPs, most of whom come from military backgrounds.
The statement’s content did not come out of a vacuum, with many eastern Jordanians lobbying to add to the constitution the decision made by King Hussein to disengage from the West Bank in 1988.
The decision by the late king was meant to pave the way for the Palestinian Liberation Organization, under the leadership of Yasser Arafat, to negotiate the Oslo agreement, which the PLO signed a few years later.
Prominent columnist Nahid Hattar is one of the promoters of the plan to put the disengagement decision in written law in order to sever all ties created between a Palestinian state and Jordan.
His calls have been isolated during the past few years, although he had dormant supporters in parliament, security agencies and other institutions, until Israel’s recent decision to expel Palestinians in the West Bank without residency permits.
Over a period of less than a month, Hattar garnered support among conservative Jordanian tribes from the north and south, and issued a statement under the name of the society, which has nearly 190 branches across the kingdom.
Professional associations and political parties including the Islamist movement and leftist parties were quick to hit back at the statement to emphasize national unity as the main tool to fight Israel’s agenda in the kingdom.
The government also used its good ties with a number of key personalities to dispel fears about the integration of Palestinians into the kingdom through a series of public meetings to discuss this recurring tension.
During a lecture in May, former prime minister Ahmad Obeidat discussed the statement and what he called a “detrimental impact on national unity.”
“We should not allow the current political situation in the region to push us to have identity conflicts among each other, as this is taboo,” said Obeidat, who reiterated criticism to the one-person-one-vote law, which he said “enhanced the power of the tribe at the expense of national unity.”
Obeidat said he believes that granting all citizens political and civil rights does not prevent both Jordanians and Palestinians from “continuing to struggle at an international level and in the Palestinian territories” for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
Until early 1970, Palestinians who fled their homeland in the aftermath of the 1948 war with Israel enjoyed full political privilege, including joining the army. Following the civil war, there has been a systematic policy to uproot Palestinians from key political institutions in favor of Jordanians in the East Bank. Palestinians moved to gain control of the economy through prominent families that owned banks and major enterprises. But with talks over final issues, including the future of refugees and borders, the possibility of permanent settlement of Palestinians, as well as a desire for a larger piece of the political cake, pushed conservative Jordanians to sound the alarm over the “Jordan option,” according to a former minister who did not wish to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue.
A group of intellectuals and political leaders from around the country have come together to counter the suggestion of the retired generals. In mid-May, approximately 360 prominent Jordanians joined a movement to push for dialogue and political reform to confront efforts to settle Palestinians in the kingdom. The statement called for a “comprehensive” reform that guarantees all the kingdom’s citizens – both Jordanians and Palestinians – full political and civil rights to strengthen the country’s “internal front” against what they described as attempts to transform the struggle with the “Zionist enemy” into a domestic conflict between “East Bank Jordanians” and Jordanians of Palestinian origin.
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